Preferably
by Olego
Summary: Nora knows it’s not her place to pick and choose her children’s love interests, but boy if it was.


**Part 1 - Introduction**

Nora knows it's not her place to pick and choose her children's love interests, but boy if it was.

She sees Robert across the lawn on his phone and is glad it's not Kevin he's talking to. Kevin is lounging on a deckchair while Scotty plays with Paige and Cooper in the pool. Lizzie and Julia are also in the pool, Lizzie observing their every move from a safe distance.

Tommy has fallen asleep in his chair, still with his camera on his stomach. Nora realizes it will make a not very handsome tan, but decides not to bother him, when looking so peaceful.

Justin and Rebecca are sitting by the pool, throwing a red beach ball to Cooper who keeps throwing it back. Eventually it misses Justin and lands close to Kitty. She barely looks up from her 'The Weekly Standard'.

Sarah shades her eyes with her hand and looks up at the sky. She monitors her children in the pool from a distance, sipping her Mojito.

Nora smiles when she sees her whole big family gathered on her lawn. While making a new batch of lemonade, Nora remembers the people her children has brought home over the years.

**Part 2 – Sarah**

Nora sees Sarah sitting far back. She's got sunglasses on and smiles at her playing children.

Poor Sarah. She worked so hard on finding a guy and then she worked so hard on making it work and yet, here she is. She dated a lot of different guys, and they were all the One until a week later when he had brutally dumped her. Nora quickly learned that Sunday was sundae day.

Nora was never really fond of Graham. Not only did he consider Ojai a slot machine, but he also managed to land the company for Holly to take over, maneuvering out Sarah all together.

Paige waves for Sarah to join, but Sarah declines and points at Kitty instead. In fact, Nora hasn't seen Sarah in the pool since that guy… Jimmy from Chino actually dumped her when bathing in it. Sarah hadn't taken it so well, and Kitty had much later hinted something about a vicious revenge.

That was her girls, alright. They never took any crap from anyone, and they always stuck together when one was hurt. Nora smiles when she sees Sarah walking over to the pool and sits down, dipping her feet in the water.

**Part 3 – Kitty**

Robert has been on his phone for over ten minutes when he hangs up and starts to walk towards the others round the pool. He's the only one who arrived in a suit and tie, and even though the jacket and the tie is gone, he looks like a monkey in the Sahara. Nora sees him join Kitty, telling her something while they both keep very straight faces.

Well, Kitty did bring home some guys who were not Nora's favourite people. So many guys from Young Republican's Club she lost count, a couple of ones in college and then Jonathan when she lived in New York.

Nora almost grumbles just thinking of him. No, she liked Warren. Maybe even more than Kitty did. She saw so much of William in him, well, the old William, the one she thought she knew back then.

In either case, if Kitty and Warren had tried a lasting relationship, one of them probably would've killed the other over the war or international aid or something.

Robert picks up a red beach ball and throws it laughingly into the water. Cooper attacks it and splatters water all over Kitty, causing Robert to laugh even harder.

**Part 4 – Tommy**

Tommy was the first one to settle down, meeting Julia when only 18. There was never any doubt that it was going to be them and Nora liked her from the moment she met her.

Before her there was Maid Mary. She was young, sweet and utterly boring. Nora thought so and eventually even Tommy did. The only one who had liked her in the end was William.

Julia was the perfect wife and the perfect potential mother. She would help out with all things Nora needed an extra hand with and she was always there to speak her mind. William had respected her in a way he didn't respect a lot of young women.

Nora saw so much of herself in Julia. At least a person she was before she met William, and maybe the person she could have been had he been different.

Nora sees Julia talk to Lizzie, pointing at Paige and Cooper. Scotty swims over to them and coos with Lizzie. Cooper throws the big red beach ball to Scotty and he shows it to Elizabeth. She reaches out to touch it, looking at it with gigantic eyes and both Julia and Scotty laugh in delight.

**Part 5 – Kevin**

Kevin pretends to just sunbathe, but Nora knows he's secretly checking out Scotty in the pool. She also knows that Scotty knows, and he therefore makes sure to flaunt himself in clear vision of Kevin. She smiles, so glad Kevin finally realized Scotty was the one for him.

Kevin never felt comfortable bringing home guys when William was still alive. The few ones she met before his death were easily counted on one hand, and the had all seemed uneasy in the house where their boyfriend's father behaved like he wanted to throw them out. She had argued with William then, every time.

When Kevin started seeing Jason, he changed. He went to church and seemed to settle down. When Jason left, she saw Kevin break down more and more for every week, until Scotty showed up again. As a friend, but it sure helped.

She never met the Greek God, but she didn't have to to know that she didn't like him. He made Kevin monogamous in a relationship that they never showed off around people.

Scotty smiles and Kevin and splatters some water at him, causing him to get up. He pulls of his shirt and jumps in.

**Part 6 - Justin**

Justin. Nora smiles just thinking of him. Whatever he did in the past, she couldn't be more proud of him today. He throws the red beach ball to Cooper and splatters water all over Scotty who laughs, already wet. Rebecca nudges Justin's side and gets a kiss in reply.

Justin's dating record is not exactly narrow. There were several Fawns and random girls with no names until Tyler eventually showed up. She was sweet and smart and she really wanted to and had the capacity help Justin. She had blended quite well with the other siblings, doing tequila shots with Kevin and sharing Justin stories with Kitty. Nora was never told why they broke up, but she wasn't all that surprised.

She was, however, quite surprised when hearing that Justin had started dating Rebecca. She didn't even register it until she was in bed that night after the excruciating day at the villa. The more she thought of it, the more she was okay with it, as annoying as it was that Holly was her son's potential mother-in-law.

Rebecca was never an in-law, she never will be. She is Nora's third daughter, and that's the way it is.


End file.
